Sir, – The International Adoption Association (IAA) welcomes and applauds Rosita Boland on her honest and accurate portrayal of the adoption community in Ireland ("Changes to adoption law shattered my hopes of becoming a parent", Weekend Review, March 8th).
The IAA fully supports Ireland’s implementation of the Hague Convention and all the protection it affords to children and we recognise that adoption is a service for children and not for prospective adoptive parents.
We understand that Ireland is in a transitional period since the enactment and we support the Adoption Authority of Ireland’s (AAI) practice of ensuring ethical and transparent adoptions. The IAA recognises that there is a dramatic reduction in the number of intercountry adoptions worldwide, with many contributing factors, such as economic growth in sending countries and an increase in domestic adoption.
However, this does not change the fact that 11 post-Hague adoptions into Ireland over a three-year period is still unacceptable. The international social services have reported that there is an improvement on the ground in many sending countries but the truth remains that there are hundreds of thousands of children languishing in institutions worldwide that deserve the opportunity to become part of a family. How is this in the best interests of the child?
Figures released in a Hague-commissioned report indicate that the figure for international adoptions in 2004 was 45,000. By 2011 the figure was 22,000. Country comparisons show the following: Spain saw a 48 per cent reduction from 2004 to 2010; France saw only a 14 per cent reduction in same period; Canada had no reduction from 2004 to 2010; and Italy saw a 21 per cent increase.
In Ireland, intercountry adoption has not fallen, it has collapsed.
The IAA calls upon the Adoption Authority of Ireland, along with all policymakers, to engage urgently with countries where children are available for international adoption; to enter into bilateral agreements with non-Hague countries, as permitted under section 40 of the Adoption Act 2010; and to progress the opportunity for change that is in the best interests of the children. – Yours, etc,
TRISH CONNOLLY,
International Adoption
Association,
Rathfarnham Road,
Terenure, Dublin 6W.
Sir, – It is shocking that prospective parents can be part of an opaque system for six years and more. The Adoption Authority of Ireland seems to be no more accountable than its predecessors.
What really concerns me is that while families scrape together a small fortune to adopt children from overseas, far too many Irish children, who have been abused by their birth parents, and who are never going back to them, are denied a second change of a loving family of their own. These children remain in State care, until they are 18 and are then abandoned to fend for themselves. Far too many end up in our prisons and as service users of mental health programmes.
In the UK, adoptive families are assessed within eight months, and if approved to adopt, most are matched with their child or children within nine months. No money changes hands. Children removed from abusive families have the chance of a second, new family to love them, rather than a series of moves from one foster home to the next. – Yours, etc,
DONAL TRAYNOR,
St Philip’s Avenue,
Eastbourne,
East Sussex, England.
Sir, – Adoption is not an adult right, it is about finding homes for children in extreme circumstances, whose immediate families, close relatives or wider community or fellow citizens cannot care for them.
Under the Hague Convention, adoption is seen as a measure of last resort. If there are fewer children internationally “requiring adoption”, the world should be celebrating because it means these children have a chance to be raised by their natural families. Instead, more often than not, a fall in adoption figures is treated as bad news for prospective adopters, as opposed to good news for the children affected.
The Adoption Rights Alliance supports the Adoption Authority of Ireland’s contention that its work should not be “measured by the number of adoptions which it processes, but rather by the quality and propriety of those adoptions”.
Adoption and infertility should not be treated as related issues. Adoption should always be about finding the best home possible for each child, regardless of fertility, gender, sexuality, marital status or religion; as opposed to the current system which adjudicates what adults are more deserving by (among other things) what fertility choices they have made.
Historically, Ireland’s adoption system put the needs and wants of adults before those of children, resulting in a disturbing culture of entitlement, which is bolstered by a lack of courage on the part of many of our politicians and public figures who bow to calls for the “reopening” of corrupt countries from which we used to adopt. The problems that go ignored while adults’ needs are at the forefront include the serious issue of corruption and the deeply concerning matter of adoptions breaking down and those children ending up in care or homeless, as has been reported to our organisation. We have reported this issue to the Minister for Children, the Adoption Authority of Ireland and others, all to no avail. – Yours, etc,
SUSAN LOHAN,
CLAIRE McGETTRICK,
MARI STEED,
ANGELA MURPHY,
Adoption Rights Alliance,
The Mill House,
Millview Road,
Malahide, Co Dublin.
Sir, – With reference to Rosita Boland’s moving article, during the 1960s and 1970s successive Irish governments did not cover themselves in glory when dealing with adoption in Ireland, preferring to leave the church to play a role that rightfully belonged to the State. Are we saying now that adoption in this country is at a standstill because of bureaucratic apathy? Is this Ireland’s new adoption scandal? – Yours, etc,
J McNAMARA,
Corrig Avenue,
Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin.